


Meow you must

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-22 23:10:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13774584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: Okay, so I have a fluffy prompt (pun intended): Somehow Regina gets turned into a fluffy, fiesty little black kitten, and Emma is the one to care for her. Asked by super-nerdy-chick back at tumblr





	Meow you must

Emma bit down on her bottom lip as she watched at the kitten in front of her, its eyes seeming almost to keep on winking at her. The furry black ball, however, seemed anything but festive and the blonde sighed deeply while trying to hide her amusement before crouching in front of it, hands dangling from her knees where she rested her wrists.

“So… how long did Rumple say it was going to take?” Her question, despite the way her eyes kept trained into the black kitten, was directed towards Snow and David. The couple had been standing at the other side of the sheriff’s office, close enough to touch each other as Snow kept on fiddling with her wedding ring in a way that made her strikingly similar to her daughter and her own fiddling.

One that she had been doing at least until recently, ring now missing from her hands.

“A few days perhaps. Or maybe not… he wasn’t sure.” David answered before glancing quickly at his wife, a nod confirming her reply as a small sigh that echoed louder than usual as Emma narrowed her eyes, watching at the fur-ball in front of her.

The kitten was adorable; that was out of the question. It was the intelligence on its pupils and the way they almost glowed purple in rage every time Emma tried her best not to laugh that it became obvious who was at the other side of the transforming spell.

“He told us that she is still there.” David licked his lips out of nervousness as Emma extended her right hand, palm upwards, towards the kitten, her fingers almost gracing the small nose of the animal before it hissed, nibbling her skin in a way that could only be a warning. “But the spell…”

“She is going to be so angry at us.” Snow’s interruption made Emma look up, one hand still extended, the other flat at her knee now in an attempt to keep her balanced in front of the kitten. “She said that she didn’t want any interruptions on her vault but…”

“I’m sure she will understand it was a mistake.” David placed his left hand on Snow’s forearm, a gentle gesture Emma glanced at it before returning her eyes to the cat who was now looking at her parents in a way that if it had been Regina’s it could only have been described as a scoff. “You only dropped a bottle…

Well, now Emma understood better why the kitten had refused to be close to Snow as soon as the trio had entered into the station, convoluted explanation already falling out of her father’s lips. This was going to be interesting.

“Couldn’t Gold…” She began, pushing herself out of her crouched position, the kitten’s eyes following her every movement. “un-magic her or something?”

Snow shook her head and dragged an even louder sigh than before.

“He told us he can’t, magic being unstable again.”

Emma tilted her head and fought the need to roll her eyes; of course. That was the reason why Regina had go to the vault after all; to try to find a solution for the bursts of magic that had been happening. Focusing instead on the little animal and feigning a cough in order to mask her need to grin, she tilted her head towards it before turning back to her parents.

“So… you are saying me that we need to wait until Regina is Regina again?”

The cat mewled.

“Only for a few days.” David quipped. “And so, we thought that you could be the one in charge to take care of her while she is…”

“Transformed.” Snow finished with a quick smile that didn’t quite reach the easy mood she was trying to infuse her words with. “The house might be empty without… and so we thought…”

Emma didn’t even waist her time pointing at her mother how she not so subtly had tried not to mention Hook’s name in front of her. Not that she cared about the pirate anymore, not like she had once upon a time convinced herself she did.

The cat seemed as displeased as she felt because its whole posture seemed to change, bristling for a second before positioning herself between Emma and Snow in a way that could have been interpreted as Regina glaring at the other brunette. Of course, in cat form, the glare didn’t hold quite the same punch.

It wasn’t, Emma reasoned, like she would have said otherwise if she had been with her parents at Gold’s; both Regina and her had made abundantly clear that they trusted each other and, if she was being honest, if the one transformed in an animal would have been her she would have felt far safer with Regina. Nodding and hoping that the arrangement was what the former queen truly wanted Emma decided to settle the discussion; the cat… or Regina, was going to stay with her.

“Only the best sardines for you, am I right?” She muttered after Snow and David had done their farewells; Snow still muttering how she hadn’t wanted to break the bottle that had been filled with the potion that had caused the whole problem to begin with. Emma suspected that it was going to pass a really long time before the woman was going to be allowed into Regina’s vault.

* * *

“You smell like Regina.”

Emma narrowed her eyes at Ruby’s pun, the lanky brunette letting out a wolfish grin before coming closer to the blonde and picking a small black hair out of Emma’s jacket in a flair that made the blonde suddenly very conscious of the way the werewolf seemed to be laughing at some inner joke she didn’t feel like understanding.

“Snow told you?”

Ruby nodded dramatically before pushing her elbows forward on the dinner’s counter. She had returned from her adventures with Dorothy a month ago but Granny had lasted only a second before placing her back at the other side of the Formica table; notepad in hand. The werewolf however, hadn’t seem to mind and so she was back to be a waitress. Until either Dorothy or herself decided to leave, that’s it. A threat that turned more and more vague as weeks passed.

“She came after dropping by at the station.” Shrugging and mechanically preparing Emma’s usual, Ruby hummed absentmindedly before placing the blonde’s coffee to go in front of her. “I asked and she told me.”

Emma bit back a sigh; many things could be said about her mother. Keeping a secret wasn’t one of those. Raising her left hand and fiddling with her pendant, she rose the cup to her lips and winced at the heat before muttering something that could be either a hum or a swear.

A moment Ruby only allowed her to bask on for a total of a second before she re-started her interrogation; eyes twinkling.

“So, how is her majesty?”

Emma narrowed her eyes for a moment, staring at Ruby and the way she kept on looking at her, glancing cheekily from behind the counter. It had been years since someone had actually called Regina that and, for almost a moment, she considered starting that old diatribe with Ruby. A moment that was quickly lost as Ruby growled and muttered an “I’m sorry” that matched with her eyes as they glowed yellow. Gulping down a second sip of her coffee before replying to the question, Emma thought on the kitten she had found hovering her pillow that very morning, eyes firmly closed and not an ounce of will to move out of what Emma considered to be HER place.

“It’s…. interesting.” She finally replied, eliciting a snort from Ruby. “Being a cat suits her.”

“I wouldn’t have said that Regina was the kind of person that spit fur balls.”

Emma threw a warning glance to her friend; look that was quickly dismissed by a smirking Ruby.

“You know what I meant.”

Rolling her eyes Emma kept on answering, thinking on how excited Henry had looked for a moment only to stare agape at what was his mother, the question of how Emma had decided to buy a cat dying on his lips.

“She was comfortable with Henry.” She said, blowing onto the coffee. “I was worried that she might have felt like hiding away but she didn’t. Problem is that she hovers the sheets.”

This time a loud snort was heard through the dinner, one that wasn’t stopped by Emma’s warning glare nor the muttered “Ruby” the werewolf was quick to shut with a small giggle.

“So…” The brunette said after she threw a quick look to Granny, pleading look that was met with a nod from the old woman. “You shared your bed with her?”

“It’s not like I have another.” Emma mumbled, blushing. That had been a complicated moment but after Hook’s leave the house had slowly transformed into a place only to be in the barest minimum and it hadn’t been like the room they could have used for guests had ever been filled in so apart from Henry’s room -which the ca… Regina had almost entered in before wrinkling its nose in something that seemed Regina’s sour face before asking Henry why he hadn’t aired out his room- only the master bedroom was properly furnished. It had been the easiest choice for the first night after all.

Now, as Ruby bit down another fit of giggles Emma wondered if it had.

Chuckling, Ruby started to move away, Leroy moving towards the two of them.

“I don’t know Emma, perhaps you should just kiss her already and see if that works out.”

And, on that final note, the werewolf left Emma to her devices, a snort following her back as she did so.

* * *

Being honest with herself Emma had thought about what Ruby had said more than a few times throughout the day. However, after talking with Rumplestiskin a few times as well to the Fairies and only seeing that yes, bursts of magic would keep on happening from time to time until the residual power subsided, she had tried hard not to stop every few seconds to consider why the werewolf had told her such thing.

Finding the kitten, which she truly couldn’t bring herself to think as it as Regina, in the middle of creating something that was already a mess with the many books Emma had picked over from Regina’s vault after their magic lessons in an open disarray that spoke almost nothing of the former queen’s usual cleanliness, however, made Emma forget for a moment about any words regarding a kiss.

(All the books were open on transformation spells, as she would later realize.)

Until she started to grumble at the cat, that is, and her tired-addled mind decided that could confide on it for Ruby’s words.

Suddenly the constant proud hiss that had come from the kitten ever since Emma had started to put the books away stopped altogether.

“… Regina?”

(She obviously ended up kissing the brunette. Of course she did; she had been in love with the former queen for a lot longer she felt herself ready to admit after all. And then she later had a really long conversation that had a few tears on it. She also had to go back to Granny the morning after and face Ruby who, this time, simply smirked at her and muttered a quick “You smell like Regina.” again before giving her two coffees. Emma found herself too happy for to fully register it. That, however, is another story)


End file.
